"One can't believe impossible things."
"I daresay you haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was your age I always did it for one half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast."
-Lewis Carrol "Through the Looking Glass"

Wednesday, October 20, 2004

V - Education

1) The best measure of an individual’s
academic achievement is:

a) Grades based on academic mastery of a
subject as established by testing

b) Grades based on individual effort

c) The number of Participation awards they
have

d) Grades based on group projects only

e)
The amount of self-esteem they have

2) Speech Codes at Colleges and
Universities the prevent conservative opinions from being expressed while on
campus or enrolled in classes

a)
Prevent Hate Speech against minorities

b) Prevent hate speech against White Anglo-Saxon
Males

c) Lead to a free exchange of ideas and
access to different viewpoints

d) Encourage a student’s ability to understand
and cooperate with others

e)
Create a less hostile learning environment

f) Are compliant with the 1st
Amendment

3) Universities should grant segregated
housing to those minority students that petition for it because:

a)
Protecting their self esteem from the racists is more important than integration
of races

b) A reduction in exposure to different cultures
and beliefs helps an individual become more educated and better able to succeed
and adapt to a wider culture.

c) The majority of students should be
protected from minority cultures and ideas

d) Minorities should be encouraged by their peers
to retain attitudes, habits and cultural beliefs that may hinder their
scholastic progress

e) It fulfills the dream of Martin Luther
King by encouraging desegregation of races.

f)
It results in a more equal society

4) If 80% of a school faculty identifies
themselves as liberal

a) It will prove ideological
discrimination against conservatives

b) It will encourage
dissenting beliefs among students and faculty.

c)
It will have no effect on grading or discussions in the classroom

d) It will prove that faculties don’t have
ideological beliefs

e)
It will prove that liberals are smarter than conservatives

5) Admitting an individual who belongs to
a particular ethnic group under lower academic requirements to a school where
the majority of the other students were admitted under higher academic
standards:

a) Adds to the self-esteem that individual

b) Makes the individual capable of competing
academically with the other students

c) Results in unfairly passing over many
other individuals on the basis ethnicity

d) Leads others to more fully recognize the
inherent abilities of members of the same ethnic group who were admitted under
the higher academic standards

e) Results
in more “equality”

6)Teachers
in our Public schools need more money because

a) Per Pupil real spending (inflation
adjusted) has tripled over the last 40 years and this has led to corresponding
increase in student performance

b) The number of Public School employees per
student is half what it was 40 years ago and this has led to a corresponding
increase in student performance

c) The number of students per teacher is a
little more than half what it was 40 years ago and this has led to a
corresponding increase in student performance

d) Teachers need the money to send their kids to
private schools at twice the rate of the larger population

e)
The more Public School Officials and Teachers there are, the more money gets paid to the Teachers Union to promote socialist causes.

f)
That will improve the performance of the schools

7) Tenure is a good system for the
teaching profession because

a) A teacher cannot be held accountable for
poor teaching performance or other misdeeds

b) It results in a protective barrier by which
teachers can enforce their own moral and ideological codes in hiring and in the
class room

c) It encourages young un-tenured teachers
to be outspoken and promote change

d) It
ensures teachers do not leave the public school system

8) Parental requests that children
be excused from lessons on evolution in Public Schools

a)
Are Stupid and should be ignored

b) Expose
their children to willful ignorance

c)
Are attempts to force one intolerant version of “God’s Law” on everyone

d) Should
cause the children in question to be expelled

e)
Should result in attempts to force parents to choose between church and
education

9) Public Television

a) Provides entertainment and
education that is demanded by the public at large

b) Is subsidized by the taxpayers

c)
Prevents censorship of ballet, art, and music not demanded by the public

d) Caters to the tastes of intellectuals

Extra Credit : What are the Units of
Individual Merit, and what scientific apparatus and procedures are used to
measure it?

Merit is measured using a complex mix of intuition and
enlightened guessing as detected by vibes and feelings.